On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
> The US government estimated (I think based on 1999 census information - I
> know there is a reference in these archives somewhere <sigh/>) USD $175
> billion as the annual disposable income of people with disabilities. In
> Australia the term usually means what people have to spend after they have
> paid for rent, basic food, work expenses, i.e. people living on basic Social
> Security Payments generally have almost none, but people with jobs have more.
but what little they have would/could be spent on accessible housing,
accessible food stores, accessible tools/transport/whatever for work.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that most people with disabilities are
living in housing that does not meet their needs (what ever their needs
are)
> There is an argument to be made that not only is this money available, but at
> the moment it is a largely unserved market, and therefore ready to get good
> service.
but part of the problem is "us" we are willing to spend our money at
inaccessible places. we don't demand access for our $$$
> I believe that ther is research into customer loyalty that shows
> customers with disabilities are more loyal than average customers, but I
> can't remember where I heard it so it could be unreliable.
I know I am fiercely loyal to those that are accessible.
Bob
>
> cheers
>
> Charles McCN
>
> On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Access Systems wrote:
>
> On Sun, 4 Nov 2001, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
>
> > At 04:34 AM 11/3/2001 , Joe Clark wrote:
> > >I was reading the remarks about making a business case for accessibility, which I believe flatly cannot be done. It's purely an issue of ethics or legal compliance.
>
> late reply but.
>
> I think there is a business case possible. in fact I found that in the
> Baltimore Metro Area using only minimum SS payments as the per person
> income, which is low balling because some will be making more $$$
>
> and using that number and census data it was figured that there would be
> over 7million dollars per month of disposable income by these persons.
>
> How much do you (the business) want of that??
>
> Bob
>
> >
> > I think you're right; business cases tend to be very weak and actually
> > avoid the issues of people with disabilities ("cell phones!" "search
> > engines!") because when you're a minority group, especially one with
> > limited means AND obstacles to use, statistics are generally speaking
> > not your friend.
> >
> > I've heard statistics used as "oh, huh! I never knew that" supporting
> > evidence, but I've never seen a web developer or policymaker make a
> > change just because the numbers are there. At best, disability
> > stats are numeric trivia.
> >
> > Frankly, I think the argument, "we may end up disabled ourselves and
> > be unable to use the Internet we're building" has proven more
> > compelling than any sort numbers we can report.
> >
> > --Kynn
> >
> >
> > --
> > Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com>
> > Technical Developer Liaison
> > Reef North America
> > Accessibility - W3C - Integrator Network
> > ________________________________________
> > BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL.
> > ________________________________________
> > http://www.reef.com
> >
>
> ASCII Ribbon Campaign accessBob
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ASCII Ribbon Campaign accessBob
NO HTML/PDF/RTF in e-mail accessys@smartnospam.net
NO MSWord docs in e-mail Access Systems, engineers
NO attachments in e-mail, *LINUX powered* access is a civil right
*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
THIS message and any attachements are CONFIDENTIAL and may be
privledged. They are intended ONLY for the individual or entity named
above. If you are not the intended recipient, Please notify the sender as
soon as possible. Please DO NOT READ, COPY, USE, or DISCLOSE this
communication to others and DELETE it from your computer systems. Thanks